External-anion-dependent anionic current in blastoderm cells of early medaka fish embryos

1. Anionic current was studied by a whole-cell variation of the patch-clamp technique in blastoderm cells dissociated from medaka (Oryzias latipes) embryos at the early blastula stage. The blastoderm cells were mechanically dissociated without using proteolytic enzymes. 2. The anionic current was deactivated by hyperpolarizing steps. The steady-state current-voltage (I-V) relationship of the anion current was accurately represented by the Boltzmann relation with z = 1.01 +/- 0.02 (+/- S.E.M., n = 4) for voltage-dependent activation when internal calcium ions were buffered at 100 nM by BAPTA-Ca2+ buffer. 3. When the internal calcium concentration was reduced to 10 nM, this anionic current became an external-calcium-dependent current and was remarkably decreased by removal of external calcium ions. Furthermore, this anionic current was almost abolished when the internal calcium concentration was greatly reduced by chelating Ca2+ ions with 10 mM BAPTA. 4. This current was not affected by replacing external Na+ with TEA+ or N-methyl-D-glucamine. The reversal potentials shifted by +58.6 mV for a 10-fold decrease in the external Cl-concentration. External Cl-ions were substituted with various anions and respective current-reversal potentials were measured. The order of permeability was I- > Br- > Cl- > F-. Both the outward and inward currents almost disappeared in external Cl(-)-free solutions. 5. The voltage dependency of the anionic current shifted in a positive direction with the reduction in the external Cl- concentration, the potentials at which half the channels were activated (V 1/2) being -59.8 +/- 1.2 mV (n = 4), -40.7 +/- 0.8 mV (n = 4), -14.9 +/- 0.7 mV (n = 4), and -0.7 +/- 0.6 mV (n = 4) for 135, 90, 67, and 45 mM Cl-, respectively. This implies that the inward current, brought by efflux of internal anions, decreases with reductions in the external Cl- concentration. In the presence of external 135 mM Br-, the voltage dependency of the anionic current shifted in the negative direction (V 1/2 = -84.5 +/- 1.0 mV and z = 0.91 +/- 0.02 (n = 3)) in comparison with that in the external Cl- medium. It further shifted in the negative direction in the presence of 135 mM I- (V 1/2 = -93.8 +/- 1.5 mV and z = 0.85 +/- 0.03 (n = 3)). The inward current of the anion channel is considered to be affected by both the type and the concentration of external halide ions. 6. At the beginning of the blastula stage, the blastocoel cavity is formed for the first time. A mechanism is necessary to transport ions to the cavity without losing them to pond water outside the embryos. Since this anion channel is external-anion dependent, the current cannot be activated in the membrane facing the pond water, where concentrations of anions are much lower than those of the intracavernous solution. Only after blastocoel formation are blastoderm cells first exposed to the extracellular fluid with high ionic concentrations. Then, the anion channel would become effective for maintaining the Cl- equilibrium potential.